Hello all you compassionate people! Do you like vegan food, LUSH products, tripod dogs, massages, facials, world-saving jewelry, and videos of fatty puppies and kittens and sea lions? Come this Sunday to the Darwin Animal Doctors (DAD) Charity Pot Party by LUSH on the Upper West Side!

DAD is planning a December campaign in the Galapagos Islands, with a vet and two vet techs, to treat as many animals of Galapagos as possible before the Christmas holiday, and to spread as much humane education as possible. And before we embark on this trip, we’ll be supporting as many animals displaced or hurt by Hurricane Sandy as possible. To fundraise for all these efforts, LUSH is giving us a Charity Pot Party this Sunday.

If you come, you can learn how LUSH helps to fund activism and causes like DAD’s humane education program in Galapagos, and watch videos of our work and humane education on the islands. Stay to get a massage for charity, enjoy a facial by LUSH, eat delicious bake sale items, meet our spokesdoggy Piggy, enter a LUSH raffle, and peruse our merchandise, including hand-made jewelry that locals on Galapagos have recycled from paper, plastic, and other waste on Galapagos. Proceeds will go to help fund our December campaign, as well as rescue efforts in post-hurricane NYC.

And most importantly, no one leaves a LUSH store or event without smelling AWESOME. See you there!

Not that you need an excuse to shop, but Mooshoes is celebrating its 10th anniversary this Saturday, Dec. 3, with a 15% discount on all in-store purchases, plus beverages and snacks from Blossom du Jour and Dun-Well Doughnuts.

On Wednesday, Dec. 7, head over to Pianos on the Lower East Side for some Freerange Nonfiction and listen while Hannah Tinti, Alison Espach and Alison Smith read from their animal-related books. The event’s $8 cover will directly benefit Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary. For more information on this and other happenings in New York City, check out our Events Calendar.

In other atrocities, the USDA released its 2010 Dairy Checkoff Report, and the results are, well, atrocious: In 2009, $108 million was spent promoting milk, while $283 million was used to push dairy products like cheese. Is this really how we want our tax money spent?

On a lighter note: Sending out holiday cards? Be sure to order a book of PETA’s stamps featuring veggie celebs, now through January. The stamps, which can be purchased online, are available as of today and feature famous faces such as Woody Harrelson, Chrissie Hynde, Bob Barker and Morrissey, plus historical notables including da Vinci, Tolstoy and Pythagoras. Celebs aren’t always the most consistent carrot eaters, but they do help expose the mainstream to the cause.

For the young compassionate people in your life: The Vegetarian Resource Group is giving away two $5,000 college scholarships to vegetarian high schoolers graduating in the spring of 2012. If you know a senior who lives and promotes the veg lifestyle, make sure he or she applies by Feb. 20.

As the weather gets colder, and the streets become harsher, we discovered that dogs Occupying Wall Street were in immediate need of dog boots. Also, as the outdoors become less hospitable, fleas and parasites start to gravitate towards warm bodies, and we need to stop any potential foothold that fleas and internal worms may otherwise get in such cramped camping conditions.

(Photo by Dayna R)

Darwin Animal Doctors will be at Occupy Wall Street again this Friday night, and we’ll need your help to serve the dogs everything they need! Details:

Two Boots fetes us with a new pie called V for Vegan. It’s available by the slice today through Saturday, and ever after by the pie. Get to Avenue A tonight for a free tasting from 6-8pm.

Gardein wants to spread the love too: You can win $500 and a three months’ supply of meatless meals by liking Gardein on Facebook, taking a photo of yourself serving Gardein to friends and family (with the package in plain view) and posting the photo on their Facebook page.

Despite what a lot of people think, being vegan doesn’t mean you’re healthy—it’s very easy to be a vegan junk food junkie. So every once in a while, after doing some fairly consistent damage, I go on a cleanse. Recently I tried Kaeng Raeng, detox drinks in powder form that first saw the light of day in founder and CEO Lindsay Reinsmith’s kitchen, when she was trying to lose weight. I caught up with Reinsmith and asked her to give me the skinny on her stuff.

As an animal rights activist and a vegan, it’s important for me to have a product and a company that match my personal interests and to support these organizations. But it’s also important to put a face and a person behind Kaeng Raeng; it’s not made in China by a giant corporation with offshore customer service. We’re a small business in Northern California, and we care greatly about the quality of our product and about helping people see the health and beauty that come from a plant-based diet.